United States or Bolivia ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !


It has two doors, opening front and back, both of heavy slabs split trunks of the palmilla. They have been constructed strongly and to shut close, for the nights are sometimes chilly, and grizzly bears stray around the ranche. Hastily shutting to the doors and barring them they take stand, each at a window, of which there are also two, both being in front.

A flock of buzzards, seemingly scared by his shadow, have suddenly flapped up from among the sage-plants, and are now soaring around, close to the spikes of the palmilla. They have evidently been down upon the earth. And what have they been doing there? It is this question, mentally put by Walt Wilder, that has caused the quick change in his countenance the result of a painful conjecture.

Interrupting himself, he remains motionless, apparently paralysed by apprehension, mechanically scanning the palmilla, as though from it he expected an answer to his interrogatory. "It air possyble," he continues after a time, "too possyble too likesome. He war well-nigh done up, poor young fellur; an' no wonder. Whar is he now? He must be down by the side o' the bush down an' dead.

The cold bath, assisted by some Taos brandy from the gourd xuage of the trapper, soon restored my strength; and the hideous pigment, lathered with the bruised roots of the palmilla the soap-plant of the New Mexicans, soon disappeared from my skin.

It is made by the chaparral, which is composed of a variety of desert plants that are native to the soil and can live on very little water. It consists of live oak, pinion, mesquite, desert willow, greasewood, sage brush, palmilla, maguey, yucca and cacti and is mostly evergreen.

For some time Wilder stands in speechless surprise, his glances going all around. But no human figure is seen, either by the palmilla or among the sage-bushes beside it. Can the wounded man have crawled away? But no; why should he? Still, to make sure, the ex-Ranger shouts out, calling Hamersley by name. He gets no response.

Thus questioning himself, the ex-Ranger advances, his heart still aching with apprehension. Suddenly his eye alights on the piece of paper impaled upon the topmost spike of the palmilla. The sight gives him relief, but only for an instant; his conjectures again leading him astray.

The yucca when in full bloom, its gigantic panicles bearing a profusion of large white bells, is one of Nature's most enchanting sights. Besides all these were massive biznagas, cholas, bear-grass or palmilla, and the mescal, supplying the principal vegetable food of the Apaches.

From Point Palmilla opposite Saona Island, the shore-line, fringed with coral rocks, turns northwest and then due west. It bounds the great flat region of Santo Domingo, and to the traveler on passing ships is the most monotonous part of the coast, for in the absence of mountains to break the sky-line, there is nothing to be seen but a low palm-crowned rocky wall with surf beating at its base.

There flourish the pecan, the hackberry, the black walnut, the wild china, with evergreen oaks, plums, and clustering grapevines; while in the sterile plain above are only seen those forms of the botanical world that truly indicate the desert various species of cactaceae, agaves, and yuccas the palmilla and lechuguilla, dwarf-cedars, and mezquites, artemisia, and the strong-smelling larrea, or "creosote plant."